B.C. Chief Justice Robert Bauman has announced he is retiring after 23 years on the bench.
“I have forwarded my resignation from the office of Chief Justice of British Columbia and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon effective 1 October 2023,” Bauman said in a statement.
“It has been an immense honour to serve in these roles and to collaborate these many years with the leaders of the bench and bar in our great province and in Yukon,” Bauman said.
Bauman is the chief justice of British Columbia, chief justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and chief justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon.
He was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. in 1996, becoming a justice of the Court of Appeal for B.C. in 2008; Bauman then became chief justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. in 2009 and chief justice of British Columbia in 2013.
Prior to becoming a judge, Bauman was in private practice with Bull, Housser & Tupper in Vancouver.
He worked largely in the areas of local government and administrative law. While practicing law, he taught administrative law at UBC as an adjunct professor from 1991 to 1996.
From 2013 to 2016, he held the position of vice-chair of the Canadian Judicial Council.
Bauman was the founding chair of Access to Justice BC.
Started career in Prince George
Bauman’s UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law profile says he was born in Toronto but his family moved to Montreal when he was young.
He was educated at Loyola High School and Loyola College, and ultimately obtained a degree in history from the University of Western Ontario.
Pursing his dream to be a lawyer, he attended the University of Toronto Law School.
It was in his first year of law school he met the love of his life, his wife Sue. The couple soon settled in Prince George where sons Rob and Dave were born.
He became a partner at Wilson King, a firm founded by the father of J.O. Wilson, the eighth chief justice of the Supreme Court of B.C.
In 1978, he joined Galt Wilson to practice in Kelowna under the firm name of Wilson Bauman.
“By this time, still early in his career, he was already considered a leading expert in administrative law and local government law, subjects on which he wrote and taught extensively,” the Allard profile said.
In 1982, he moved with his family to Vancouver, where he joined Bull, Housser & Tupper, the former home of two other chief justices, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, the most recent past chief justice of Canada and a former B.C. chief justice, and William Esson, the 12th chief justice of the Supreme Court.
In 2012 and 2013, Canadian Lawyer Magazine named Bauman as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential” lawyers in the justice system in Canada.
In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Medal for his contributions to Canada.
Bauman is also the 2012 recipient of the Anthony P. Pantages, QC Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of justice, an award presented by the Justice Institute of British Columbia Foundation.
Bauman was the recipient of the 2013 Trial Lawyers Association of BC Bench Award by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia.
